Last Day of Visa Stress

6 Dec.

Today is election day. No vehicles allowed on the streets. No businesses allowed to open. Consumption of alcohol strictly prohibited.
My 30 days are up tomorrow. I had 30 days to use my “special purpose missionary visa” to submit all my documents for an actual missionary visa. Everything has been in order for a week, but there is a particular Colonel in charge of criminal records that will not sign for me to stay.
I am fasting today for my time in Bolivia. I am in Bolivia because God called me here by putting in my heart a passion for Bolivia and nowhere else. I will definitely cry if I have to leave. But also, I have to understand that whatever happens, it is because that’s what God wants, which is the best. Maybe I’m needed somewhere else and was just given a wonderful visit to a place and people that I love.
The longer it takes to get accepted for the one measly year I am trying to be here, the more unwelcome I feel and the more distant from my purpose in coming. I still cannot picture myself doing anything in Aramasí, I have no technical skills, I can’t speak Quechua, I was sent by an organization without any consultation of the people in the actual community.
I took my first Quechua class yesterday morning. It was very exciting. It’s such an old language, and so different from any Romance or Anglo-Germanic languages. They have a completely unique way of expressing and relating and understanding themselves in relation to others and the world the exist in. I have not even scraped the surface, but isolation is a nonsensical idea in Quechua, interrelatedness is implied and essential in the meaning of the words and grammatical construction. For instance, the first question asked after the initial Walejllachu? (All is well, friend, no?) means “what ayllu is yours and how are things among you?” Ayllu means family and community and mutual support system.